BoI to sell its fund administration arm

Dublin: Bank of Ireland is to sell on its fund administration business, Bank of Ireland Securities Services for a cash sum of €60 million, it said yesterday.

The buyer is Northern Trust Corporation and the cash deal should add €40m to the bank’s Tier 1 equity to the bank’s depleted balance sheet.

Bank of Ireland Securities Services is the fund administration and custody arm of the bank.

Founded in 1991 it serviced assets of $170 billion at the end of December 2009 for domestic and international clients.

Northern Trust is a Chicago-based financial institution.

Last Friday the bank announced it expects profits in 2010, before taking loan losses into account, to be 25% to 30% lower than €1.4bn recorded the previous year.